Did you know that Queensland recently approved legislation banning plastic shopping bags throughout the state? As of 1 July 2018, plastic bags will no longer be legal in grocery, retail, or other business settings. Instead, businesses will need to offer alternative shopping bags to their customers. At Claytons Australia, we can help. We sell bulk reusable shopping bags and can help you establish an affordable and logical strategy to eliminate plastic bags from your daily customer experience.

The Reason for the Plastic Bag Ban

The Queensland Government decided to ban plastic bags to help protect the environment, particularly marine life. According to the Queensland Government website, most plastic bags end up in landfills, but a small percentage—which still equates to about 16 million plastic shopping bags—end up as environmental pollutants in Queensland annually. Sixteen million plastic shopping bags, as you might expect, add up. In terms of weight, they are roughly equivalent to 96 small cars.

For marine life, plastic bags can be catastrophic. In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, there is a gigantic patch of floating plastic garbage that is virtually impossible to clean up or eradicate. Thanks to oceanic currents, most plastic that ends up in the ocean makes its way to this clump of trash—and gets trapped there by a sort of vortex. This garbage patch is currently said to be ‘increasing exponentially’ in size.

Closer to home, marine animals that are native to Australia’s coasts—from sea turtles to seabirds—can ingest plastic bags or become entangled in them. Either outcome can be deadly.

These issues illustrate just a few reasons for the Queensland plastic bag ban, and for the increased focus on reusable branded shopping bags.

Finding Wholesale Shopping Bags in Queensland

If you need bulk reusable shopping bags to adapt your business to the rules instituted new plastic bag ban, Claytons Australia can help. For the past 50 years, we have been a dependable supplier of reusable bags to businesses in Queensland and throughout Australia. Our bags range in design from totes to drawstring bags to non-woven bags and beyond. We can help you choose the perfect bag type to suit your business and the products you sell.

We also offer branded shopping bags, which means we can work with you to print your brand name, your logo or a business-related design on your bags. This branding aspect can provide easy passive advertising for your business and can even remind your customers to come back to your store later.

Don’t risk noncompliance with Queensland’s plastic bag ban. Instead, comply with the new legislation and do your part to protect the environment by purchasing wholesale shopping bags from Claytons Australia. We are here to help you meet that 1 July compliance date, whether that means selling you bulk cloth bags of a certain colour or helping you craft the perfect branded design for your shopping bags. Either way, give us a call today to get started!